Love, Cambridge, Action!
by Irene Moriarty xx
Summary: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are dorm-mates together at Cambridge University, where they meet two other female students, Mary and Molly. The four end up going on a disastrous double date, where they encounter foes and friends alike. Sherlolly/College AU story. Rated T for mild language and action violence.
1. Chapter 1

Sherlock Holmes shivered in his black jacket as he wrapped his blue scarf tighter around his neck. He wished that he had his large coat with him but it wouldn't fit in his check-in. Mycroft was supposed to be picking him up from the airport but he was late as usual.

 _Where are you? SH_ Sherlock texted, his numb fingers shaking. _It's cold here!_

 _Be there in an hour, brother dear._ An hour? Sherlock didn't think he could last another ten minutes!

 _Forget it. I'm walking to Cambridge._ Sherlock replied, annoyed. Just as he hit send he felt a pang of regret. Now he definitely didn't have any ride to Uni, and he'd need to rent a car.

Sherlock pulled his luggage behind him. The airport was empty for the most part as it was almost midnight, except for the occasional single tourist or police officer milling around.

He reached the rental car booth to find a short, brown-haired teenager arguing with a man at the car rental booth.

"Listen," he fumed, "your website says that a car is $15 a day, why are you charging me 30?"

"It's a misprint," the sales manager insisted, "That's our price, now take it or leave it."

"Sod this," the guy replied, "I'll walk to Cambridge if I have to!" With that, he scooped up his wallet and prepared to leave, but Sherlock intercepted him.

"Are you going to Cambridge too?" He asked. "I'm Sherlock Holmes, by the way."

"John Watson, nice to meet you." John shook his hand. "I'd like to go, but this gent here is trying to rip me off."

"Here, we'll split it." Sherlock pulled out his card. "I need a ride as well, at least until I get my bus card."

"Thanks, mate." John handed Sherlock some change as he went up to the booth to purchase the car. He knew not to trust strangers, but how much harm could it do to get to know this Sherlock Holmes? He seemed pretty normal to him.

Of course, maybe that was the late hour talking.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well look at that," John pointed to the clipboard. "We're dorm-mates this year!"

Sherlock, who was half-asleep on his luggage jerked up. "Oh, um, that's nice."

"C'mon, let's go." John and Sherlock started off towards the residence hall, completely unaware of two other female students staring at them from the other side of the courtyard.

ooOoo

"Harry? It's me, John." John was sitting on his bed, just finished unpacking. "I can't talk long, he'll be back soon with the milk. My dorm-mate, my very peculiar dorm-mate. A lot has happened in the last three days. He's really strange. Yesterday I caught him unloading a skull onto the desk! And today I opened the fridge and saw all these jars with stuff floating in it, half of which probably aren't even edible. Sorry, I gotta go, call me back when you get this." John hung up and sighed.

"John? I have the groceries!" Sherlock called out, as the door opened. John closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. "John?"

"Yeah, I'm here." John replied, "Hey Sherlock, can we talk about something real quick—" he faltered. Sherlock had just entered the room and there was blood dripping from his forehead.

"Jesus, Sherlock, what have you done?" John exclaimed.

"Oh that," Sherlock seemed to notice the little pool of blood forming on the carpet. "Got into a small scuffle with some kid on my way home, Anderson or something, what a moron. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Now what did you want to talk about?"

"Uh—" John wasn't sure what to say. "I just—wondering, can I borrow some of your uh—science equipment sometimes? You know, for classes and stuff?"

"Yeah sure, whatever." Sherlock went into the bathroom with a few bandages in his hand.

 _What a weirdo_. John thought, but for the first time he felt a bit intrigued by his strange new dorm-mate. His strange new friend.


	3. Chapter 3

The first day of term finally arrived, and the week flew by without a trace. John found himself busier and more stressed than he had ever been. He was strapped for cash so he took a small job at a newspaper press. It didn't pay much but at least it was something.

Sherlock, on the other hand, was completely unfazed. He came back to the dorm on the first day, dumped his books on the desk and studied his notes and typed a lot on his laptop until it was past midnight, all without uttering a single syllable. This continued for day after day. He didn't eat, drink, and the only time he moved was when he was reaching for a new sheet of paper. Sometimes he'd get up at the crack of dawn and stand in the corner playing his violin for hours on end (to John's great annoyance). He started to wonder if his dorm-mate was even human.

The kid who had tried to beat Sherlock up, Phillip Anderson, also turned up as well. On Thursday he and his girlfriend Sally came over to harass them but Sherlock did the most incredible and unbelievable thing. He stood up and rattled off every fact about Anderson, most of which weren't pretty. Despite not having met him before he seemed to be able to read his entire life story. Anderson hadn't come back after that, leaving John with several questions for Sherlock.

So it was with some relief that when Saturday came around John was able to finally get a decent's night sleep. At least, until Sherlock started shooting the wall with a revolver.

"Sherlock!" John said angrily, throwing his pillow at him. "What are you doing? You do realize that we have to pay for any damage to this dorm right? Also why do you have a gun? Is that even allowed?"

"Bored." Sherlock mumbled quietly.

"Huh?" John asked, completely taken aback.

"BORED!" Sherlock yelled, and started firing at the wall again.

Just then someone knocked on the door.

"This is not over," John hissed to Sherlock, as threw open the door. "What?"

"Is everything okay? We thought we heard shooting." There were two girls, one with short blond hair and the other with a long brown ponytail. "We just thought we'd come to check if everything was okay," the blond one continued.

"Oh, yeah, um, it's all good." John gave them a sheepish grin. "Uh, would you like to come in? We have...hamburgers for breakfast. I'm John, by the way. John Watson."

"Mary Morstan." The blond one answered. "This is my friend, Molly Hooper. We live upstairs. I think I'm biology with you."

"Who's there?" Sherlock shouted from the other room. "Are they new? I'm against new people."

"Do ignore him, he's a real piece of work." John whispered to Mary and Molly. "Sherlock, this is Mary and Molly. They're from the floor above and they're dropping in to say hi."

Sherlock appeared in the room holding his violin. "Hmm." He surveyed them with a look on his face but didn't say anything.

However, since that day they ended up hanging with Molly and Mary more often. Even Sherlock seemed to enjoy their company, Molly most of all. She and Sherlock were both studying chemistry, though she was going to become a pathologist and he was majoring in forensic science. Mary and John, on the other hand, both aspired to become doctors.

One day John and Sherlock were in the lunch line getting their food. Actually, Sherlock wasn't eating anything, he maintained that digestion slowed him down.

"Sherlock?" John asked, reaching for a serving spoon.

"Hmm?" Sherlock replied, not looking up from his phone.

"I'm thinking of asking Mary out." Sherlock's head snapped up, and he put this phone away.

"So what's the question?" Sherlock answered.

"Uh, how do you think I should do it?"

"Just go up and ask her if she wants coffee. It's as simple as that, John." Sherlock started to pull out his phone again.

"Will you go out on a date with me?" John blurted.

"What?" He interjected. "John, I think you should know, I'm not actually ga—"

"I meant, will you come along on the date?" John clarified, face reddening. "We could do a double date thing at the mall or something, you could ask Molly out. Just as friends. Please?"

Sherlock regarded him for a moment with an unreadable expression on his face. "Okay," he shrugged. "Just as friends."


	4. Chapter 4

"Hi," Molly greeted Sherlock as he came up to her by the DQ. "John and Mary are running a bit late. Snow."

"Yeah, he texted." Sherlock replied. "Should we get some...ice-cream?" He said nervously, gesturing to the menu.

"That'd be good." Molly had to stifle a laugh. For all his intellectual genius, the one thing he didn't know was how to interact with people.

Mary and John arrived a couple minutes later, cheeks flushed and out of breath, snow on their coats. They walked around for a little bit, stopping at some stores to admire the expensive merchandise they could never afford as a college student. At one point Sherlock found himself holding Molly's hand even though he had no memory of doing so. He was surprised that she didn't let go.

When the sky got dark they started making their way towards the exit, but suddenly a loud, annoying voice rang out through the mall, "Hey there they are!" Anderson and Sally Donovan pointed. "Those dorks who insulted me!"

"Molly, Mary, John, run!" Sherlock stood up straight. "I'll hold them off."

Anderson came at Sherlock and reared a kick at his head. Sherlock fell down, his head spinning and vision blurry. He tried to raise up a fist but Anderson stomped on his hand.

"On second thought," Sherlock squeaked, staggering to his feet, "Maybe I'll come with." He got up and began to run towards the quickly closing elevator, where the rest of them were.

"Sherlock! Hurry!" Molly yelled, jamming the Door Open button with her thumb. Sherlock dashed in just as the doors closed.

"Whew that was close!" Mary exclaimed. "Maybe we should stay at Greggs, the bakery on the floor above us."

The elevator opened with a _ding!_ and they all stepped out. Unfourtunately, Anderson and Donovan had caught up with them via escalator.

"Go pick on someone your own size, shorty!" John called out, but his voice quavered. It was clear he had never been in a fight before.

"We're done for!" Molly moaned. Sherlock tried to give her a reassuring look but it came out more as a frightful grimace.

Suddenly a kid with a seriously 80's mullet stepped out from the bakery. "What's going on here? Break it up, boys, break it up. I'm a junior officer, and there's no fighting here under my patrol."

"Sorry sir." Anderson gave Sherlock a look of loathing and skulked away.

"Thanks," Sherlock stretched out his hand. "Who are you?"

"Greg Lestrade." The boy replied.

"Nice to meet you Graham. I'm Sherlock."

"Pleasure. And it's Greg, by the way."

"Yes." Sherlock nodded absentmindedly. "Well, we'd better get going before they come back at us in the street or something."

"Yeah," Greg agreed, "That would be a good idea. Nice seeing you."

ooOoo

Molly and Sherlock lagged behind everyone else by a few paces as they left the building.

"Today was nice," Molly remarked, as they stepped into the chilly parking lot.

"Yeah, it was. Aside from, you know, all that running and fighting." Sherlock agreed. "Maybe we can do it again sometime? Go out for coffee? Of course, we'd have to pick a place where we won't run into people who hate me." Sherlock said timidly.

"Coffee would be great." Molly smiled, a relieved expression spreading onto Sherlock's face.

"So, uh, see you around at school, I guess." Sherlock waved goodbye as Molly departed for her car.

Though Sherlock had no knowledge of it, John frequently spied him and Molly hanging out together after that day. At lunch, in the afternoon, sometimes he would even visit her at her classes. One could even go as far to say they were dating, but then again, nothing was certain with Sherlock Holmes.


End file.
